Welcome to the Florida Region Officials' News Page. The information provided here is to assist new and returning volleyball officials and coaches stay current with the rules and requirements necessary to officiate USA Volleyball events in the Florida Region. Please review the information provided in the Official's section of our website and contact either of the Official's Division contacts with any questions.

A motion was made and passed to change the wording of USAV Rule 19.2 to read as: “The Libero(s) must wear a uniform which clearly contrasts with the rest of the team.” A second motion was passed that made the implementation of the new rule immediate. The new rule replaces the "Solid Color Jersey" rule.

Pati Rolf, chair of the USAV Rules Commission, stated that the new rule was approved in response to the concerns of the membership.

"We strongly believe this rule change, which was strongly supported by the membership, will be less restrictive and more flexible,” Rolf said.

One key point in the discussions was to ensure that any team that currently had legal uniforms would still be able to use those uniforms. Paul Albright, USAV indoor rules interpreter, emphasized that training will start as soon as possible to get that message out to the membership.

"Obviously we have a challenge to get the word out, but we already have people working to update our training materials, including the new jersey gallery on https://VolleyballRefTraining.com, to explain the rule change,” Albright said.

USA Volleyball will also work to widely distribute the new rule to the clubs and tournament directors as the season is in progress.

Any questions regarding the rules change can be directed to your local region referee chair or to the USAV Rules Interpreter at vbinterp@usav.org.

UNIFORM RULE

Even after the elimination of the USAV modification of rule 19.2, there will still be challenges to address with the legality of uniforms. With the variety of manufacturing and decorating options for uniform jerseys, referees must still evaluate uniforms to be certain they are legal for play.

Jerseys must be LEGAL, as defined in the DCR. The thing that is most often an issue here is the color of the numbers. The numbers on EVERY jersey must contrast with the color of the jersey on which they are placed.

19.2 EQUIPMENTThe Libero player(s) must wear a uniform (OR JACKET/BIB FOR THE RE-DESIGNATED Libero) which has a different dominant color from any color of the rest of the team. The uniform must clearly contrast with the rest of the team. The Libero uniforms must be numbered like the rest of the team. For FIVB, World and Official Competitions, the redesignated Libero should, if possible, wear the same style and color of jersey as the original Libero, but should keep his/her own number.

Contrast - the Libero jersey must contrast with the predominant color (>50%) of the other jersey.

It is up to the first referee on any given match to determine if a team's jersey(s) is/are:legal. The referee must also evaluate the contrasting Libero jersey, if the team is using a Libero for the match. If the first referee believes that there is an issue with any or all of a team's jerseys relative to either of these points, the referee asks the coach if a different jersey is available. If there is no other jersey available, a player may not play in an illegal uniform. If all uniforms are LEGAL but there is no jersey that contrasts with the team jersey, the team may not use a Libero until a compliant jersey is available. The first referee would notify the head referee of the tournament. The head referee may allow a team to use a non-contrasting jersey for a given period of time, however this will NOT be allowed at nationally-sanctioned events. Given that fact, the Florida Region will enforce compliance with the contrasting jersey rule to prevent issues when a team participates in a nationally-sanctioned tournament either in or outside our region.

Gallery of Jerseys

To assist coaches and club directors in purchasing new jerseys and ensuring legality there is a gallery of jerseys to be found on VolleyballRefTraining.com. It is being updated now to reflect the rule change.

A picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to volleyball jersey compliance, the adage could not be any more true.

So, for teams, clubs, referees, tournament directors, and regional leaders, the VRT staff has posted a gallery of jerseys with written rulings by Paul Albright, USAV Indoor Rules Interpreter.

Name of jersey (if available), picture(s), and the rules interpreter’s ruling on its legality.

This is a dynamic document, and examples and cases will be added as they are presented to the rules interpreter. For ease of viewing, updates or changes will be added to the top of the document, with a new date listed for those changes.

This is a great resource for teams/clubs, region administration, and referees to refer to either prior to an event or when assessing a particular jersey implementation. Please do your part to widely distribute news of this resource.